Shakira may face 8 years in Spanish prison for tax crimes

Bad news for Shakira. The Spanish Prosecutor's Office has requested eight years and two months in prison, plus a fine of 23.8 million euros ($24.3 million), for the Colombian singer. She's being sentenced for six counts of tax evasion.

The request comes after the artist broke off negotiations with the Spanish Prosecutor's Office to reach a sentencing agreement. As a result, she will go to the bench and face any prison sentence that the judge decides for her.

The singer and her legal representatives are confident that Shakira will not end up in prison. They claim to "fully" trust in her innocence (as reported by the Spanish 'El Diario') and "accuse the Treasury and the Prosecutor's Office of violating her rights."

As El Diario points out, in cases similar to Shakira's (alleged tax fraud of large fortunes) the sentence has mostly been a payment of the evaded tax money. It has generally not ended with the convicted person's imprisonment.

However, anything can happen in the case of Shakira and her alleged tax crime in Spain. The Colombian was accused of committing up to six crimes against the public treasury.

According to the Spanish Prosecutor's Office, the singer pretended not to reside in Spain between 2012 and 2014, even though they claim she did. As such, she breached her fiscal commitment to the country.

The star, born in Barranquilla, Colombia in 1977, has an estimated net worth of $300 million.

She made some of that money with hits like 'Hips Don't Lie,' 'Wherever, Whenever,' and 'Waka Waka.'

At the time of her alleged tax evasion, she released her tenth studio album, 'Shakira,' which debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart, sang her single 'La La La' at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and served as a coach of the American TV show 'The Voice' alongside Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.

During the same years of her alleged tax evasion, Shakira was in the early stages of her long-term relationship with FC Barcelona soccer player Gerard Piqué. They were together from 2011 to 2022.

They had two children, born in 2013 and 2015. The family settled in Barcelona.

In early 2022, the couple announced that they had separated.

Shakira's financial controversy took off with the so-called 'Paradise Papers' in 2017. The records of wealthy people's mailbox companies showed that Shakira had a Malta-based company that transferred millions of dollars in music rights to tax havens.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that uncovered the 'Paradise Papers,' Shakira's attorneys assured them that the star had broken no laws. Still, the Spanish authorities' curiosity was sparked by this revelation.

The tax evasion case, centering on the years 2012-2014 when Shakira had claimed not to live in Spain, had already been settled with a payment by Shakira. She had transferred the 'missing' 14.5 million euros to the Spanish Tax Agency.

But even though the singer already returned the amount required by the Tax Agency (plus another three million euros of interest) she still has to sit on the defendant's bench and face a prison sentence.

In a statement sent to the media, the artist claims that the Prosecutor's Office committed "an abuse of her rights" and that she is a victim rather than a criminal.

Her communication team also says that Shakira has had "impeccable conduct, as a person and as a taxpayer."